The Champions' League
This week sees the second leg of Barcelona v Chelsea. The first leg was immensely enjoyable, and not just because Chelsea lost. The worst thing though was Sky's absurdly pro-Chelsea commentary. What makes them think that this is the bias their audience wants? Chelsea have a foreign manager, a foreign owner, and mostly foreign players. This was going to be a longer piece, but whilst checking who the Sky commentator was (Rob Hawthorne) I came across this piece in today's Observer which says it all:Some sort of nadir was reached on Wednesday evening with Andy Gray and Rob Hawthorne's insanely one-eyed commentary on Chelsea v Barcelona. Taking as a given the highly debatable proposition that every Sky viewer passionately wanted Chelsea to win, the bias strayed effortlessly into the old canard about all continental teams being full of cheats and divers. Jose Mourinho can call Lionel Messi a play-actor if he likes, but commentary teams ought to think twice before leaping to such a partisan conclusion. Sky's guys did not even think once. According to Gray and Hawthorne, Messi was 'the villain of the piece'. Outrageous. He might have rolled around a bit after one of the most blatant fouls of the season, and Asier del Horno might have been a touch unlucky to see a straight red for what boiled down to a body-check by the corner flag, but no one could be in any doubt who was the transgressor. No one but television.
posted by Matthew @ 3/05/2006 08:32:00 PM
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